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The Filing Cabinet

"The Filing Cabinet," which covers compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as other regulatory action from the Securities and Exchange Commission, executive compensation, and shareholder activism, is written by CW staff writer Joe Mont. Mont welcomes questions, comments, and statements from readers on SEC filing matters and will address them here when appropriate. Readers can contact him at joe.mont@complianceweek.com.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has issued an advisory to alert U.S. financial institutions of the increasing risk that proceeds of political corruption from Nicaragua may enter the U.S. financial system.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has issued an advisory to U.S. financial institutions to highlight the connection between corrupt senior foreign political figures and their enabling of human rights abuses.

FinCEN has issued a reminder to financial institutions and their customers that its new customer due diligence requirements took effect on May 11. The agency also clarified its exemptive relief for certain insurance arrangements.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an advisory, warning banks about widespread public corruption in Venezuela and what methods Venezuelan senior political figures may use to move and hide corruption proceeds.

A bipartisan team of U.S. senators is urging the Treasury Department to take further action to ensure that vendors working with legal marijuana businesses do not have their banking services taken away, writes Joe Mont.

Banks lacking a Federal functional regulator have been hit with proposed rules by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network that would require them to implement anti-money laundering programs. Joe Mont has more.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the China Anti-Money Laundering Monitoring and Analysis Center last week signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create a framework to facilitate expanded U.S.- China cooperation between both nations’ financial intelligence units. According to the Treasury Department, the arrangement provides a mechanism for sharing information on money laundering and the financing of terrorism in order to prevent illicit actors from abusing either country’s financial systems.

The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is proposing a rule that would require investment advisers to establish anti-money laundering programs, file Currency Transaction Reports, and report suspicious activity. While the Bank Secrecy Act does not expressly include “investment adviser” among its list of entities defined as a financial institution, the FinCEN rule would do so for advisers registered with the SEC. Details inside.

Casinos have traditionally had a less-than-stellar track record when it comes to their anti-money laundering efforts. But now, amid increased scrutiny on AML compliance by regulators, the American Gaming Association has released its first-ever AML best practices guidebook. In our latest podcast, we talk to Fred Curry, a principal in Deloitte’s anti-money laundering consulting practice, about the new guidebook, whether it goes far enough, and what other businesses can learn from the approach taken by casinos.